Many Christians who read this page are likely to think I'm nuts -- I understand this -- but Halloween and harvest celebrations fill my heart with joy. When I was a poor rag-tag, always-hungry hillbilly ragamuffin of a little girl -- many decades ago! -- in the hills of East Tennessee, to get to walk the streets of Johnson City or Bristol or Elizabethton and collect wonderful treats from people who smiled at me and mine for a change was the closest thing to Grace that I experienced as a child.

I remember one house in Johnson City in particular that became (to my limited understanding) a sort of picture of heaven. It was in the richest part of town, a many-columned house fitted out with bales of hay and stalks of drying corn and colored lights and carved pumpkins with candles glowing from inside. Lights blazed from the windows, welcoming all and sundry. The owners of the home, grandparent sorts -- I had none that I knew and loved the feeling of the homecoming their warmth managed to convey -- welcomed each child who came. They sat on the veranda of the home while hired help gave us a choice of mulled cider or (remarkable treat back then!) tiny cups of Coke to drink and -- wonder of absolute wonders in the days before we were all sated with microwave popcorn -- bags of freshly popped and buttered corn from a machine rented for the occasion.

This older couple asked our names and (it makes my heart ache and my eyes tear to remember it now) said a blessing over us as we left. I remember more than once going to bed cold and hungry and sad and wishing I could wake up on that front porch once more and never have to leave. There is a childish corner of my heart that knows that heaven's welcome for me one day will answer this remembered longing with something that is the eternal equivalent of that hallowed warming welcome I was given as a child on All Hallows Eve.

Later, learning of the special joys of The Day of All Saints (Nov. 1st) in the liturgical calender, I decided that in my home there would be special joy and special celebrations on that day. Those celebrations would begin on Halloween evening and include a great thanksgiving prayer for all the gifts from sainted strangers that have enriched my life. It is also a time when I invite my family and friends to review our salvation stories and thank God for His gracious welcome into His own hallowed forever-home.

So, when kiddos come to my house at Halloween, what do you think I do? I have been given the joy of Christ to share and I will not hold back, not for an instant, in celebrating whatever part of any life I can. Every child (and parent) who comes to my door receives both my audible blessing, my inaudible prayers, and the finest, brightest welcome I can muster or afford. I cannot forget that there may be a little one to whom this is the feast of feasts, the gift of gifts in an otherwise empty life. I count myself fortunate to be appointed by Him to offer such a welcome to any He sends to my door.

(You may publish any articles from this site as they appear with the following byline intact.  Please advise me by e-mail if you decide to use one of these articles on your site or in an e-zine.)      After 30+ years in public ministry as missionary, pastoral counselor, homeschooling mentor, writer and editor, Georgia Ana Larson now focuses on an internet-based ministry and business founded in grace and expressed through mentoring others who have a similar desire to work from home, nurture a family, build a business and stay faithful to a deep interior Call to have a life of devotion expressed in service, no matter what context. You can read more of her articles at her home site:  www.aBrighterCandle.com   Web www.aBrighterCandle.com Copyright © 2006 Georgia Ana Larson, All rights reserved

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